#playing without a working mod is AWFUL

[ihadaguyandnowidont]

This season's lack of balance is pissing me OFF

[medlarmeadows]

a close streamer friend gaming with charlie or doing a ylyl stream with him?? but secretly in love with him? and the chat picks up on it and they end up trending on twitter with their ship name???? which kinda forces the two of them to confront and talk about their feelings???

only if you want to write this, of course <3 i love charlie i cannot get enough of your writing

Thank you for the request and your kind words anon! This was so fun to write and really is a feel good fluffy fic. I hope this piece is up to your expectations :)

-

you smile you snooze (i do, when i’m with you)

cc!Charlie Slimecicle x streamer!reader

Synopsis: You Laugh You Lose turns out to be a lot harder when Charlie lights up your life with every smile.

Warning(s): light swearing.

Word count: 1.4k

masterlist || requests are open!

“Okay, enough! We need to up the stakes.”

You raise an eyebrow at your good friend, Charlie, who sits by your side in his own office chair. The both of you have headphones on, the sound of a submitted funny video streaming through them.

“What do you mean?” you feign confidence, switching your gaze between Charlie and the camera. “The stakes are pretty high at the moment, I mean, we both have one heart left.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you see the one heart on each of your corners of the OBS scene.

“Yeah, for the past thirty minutes,” he argues. “We need to up the ante! More viewership! Mo-ney.”

He throws out the last parts jokingly, making you roll your eyes and bite your lips to keep yourself from laughing.

Giving in, because you always do, you ask, “So, what do you suggest?”

Charlie snaps his fingers towards the audience.

“Instead of You Laugh You Lose, we’re now playing,” he pauses dramatically, “You Smile You Snooze!”

True to your job as a streamer, you insert your own flavour of entertainment by slumping down in your chair exasperatedly.

“Charlie,” you whine, “that’s going to be so hard.”

“Exactly why we’re going to do it,” he insists, staring back at you for your confirmation.

You grumble and glare at him briefly before glancing at chat, curious to see what their opinions were:

yes, up the stakes! it was getting boring anyways we’ll see who’s the best at not smiling i bet y/n’s gonna lose y/n can’t keep her smiles to herself! mods run a poll? have you seen how y/n looks at charlie? she’ll lose immediately she’s a goner, she smiles whenever she looks at Charlie

You blink hard. Certain chat messages sear into your corneas.

Were you that obvious?

Glancing back at Charlie, you realise that he’s still staring at you, patiently waiting for your response. You feel your cheeks warm, even though you’re certain that he hasn’t read the chat yet.

Not being able to smile at your good friend turned crush was going to be a huge struggle for you.

You sigh.

Goddamnit, you were going to lose, but anything for the views, right?

“Fine,” you answer resolutely. “You Smile You Snooze it is!”

And so, the two of you resume the media playlist with the new challenge of not smiling. The submitted videos turned out to not be that challenging to stay poker-faced at, but Charlie’s quips would often tickle your funny bone in a way that had you breathing in slowly to keep your poker face.

Curse Charlie and his good humour.

The two of you made it through a good fifteen minutes without anything crazy happening, until someone submits an edit of the YLYL stream.

“What’s this? You guys are fast,” comments Charlie.

“This better not be an embarrassing one,” you add, biting your lower lip to prepare yourself for the worse.

The edit gets straight to the point, compiling all the moments from the stream thus far of you smiling at Charlie. Heartwarming music floods your ears, barely piercing through the sudden blood rushing through your eardrums.

Panicked, your eyes glance at chat before you can stop yourself:

whoever made that is doing the Lord’s work isn’t that a little against their boundaries? what’s their duo name? no shipping guys! aw they’re actually really cute wish someone would look at me the way y/n looks at charlie

Charlie’s voice interrupts your reading, jolting you slightly:

“Dude, we should’ve done You Smile You Snooze earlier,” he snorts. “You would’ve lost so bad from the beginning.”

You turn your head to look at Charlie with wide eyes, thoughts reeling about whether he was teasing for the sake of teasing or if he was beginning to catch on to you, when you notice the expression on his face.

The way his eyes crinkle a little. The way the corners of his mouth are lifted.

He’s smiling.

“YOU’RE SMILING!” you yell at him, pointing a finger at him.

His expression turns shocked at your outburst, before he leans back in his chair in defeat.

“Damnit,” he says, although he doesn’t sound all that upset about the loss.

Meanwhile, you get out of your chair and start a victory dance for yourself, losing yourself in the euphoria of winning the YLYL stream.

You miss the fond smile that rises back on Charlie’s face as he gazes at you.

-

“Yo, we’re trending on Twitter,” Charlie says in between bites.

It’s been two hours since the YLYL stream. You’re still at Charlie’s place because he insisted that the two of you should just have dinner and hang out together while you’re there. You didn't object.

“We are?” you ask curiously, scooting closer to Charlie to look at his phone screen.

“Mm,” he replies nonchalantly, clicking on a post and passing the phone to you. “We even have a ship name now.”

“What?”

Your eyes bulge from your sockets and you stare at Charlie. He shrugs, too calm and collected for your racing heart, and gestures for you to have a look at the tweet he pulled up.

It begins with a hashtag of your ship name, followed by “get you a duo that smiles at each other the way charlie and y/n smile at each other”. Below that was a side-by-side comparison of two screenshots from the YLYL stream, one of you smiling at Charlie while he wasn’t looking, and vice versa.

Your eyes glance back and forth between the phone screen and Charlie’s expression. While your brain is working a hundred miles an hour to come up with some sort of damage control, Charlie looks relaxed, almost satisfied or relieved.

“I – We – ” your words stutter as you struggle to focus on a topic. When you look back at Charlie, you scoot yourself a little away from him, nerves suddenly taking over from the proximity and the tweet.

Finally, you settle on accusation:

“Why are you so calm?”

“I mean,” Charlie reaches for another piece of fried chicken, “it’s no big deal. We’re friends. Let the chat think what they want to think. Unless… ”

He trails off, taking a bite of his chicken and chewing too slowly for it not to be deliberate.

“Unless what?” you push. You’re sure you look a little frazzled, still embarrassed and shocked by the post and the emergence of a ship name.

Charlie swallows before leaning closer, closing the gap that you created, saying:

“Unless you actually like me.”

You stare at him. It feels as though something in your brain has short circuited as you register his statement. As you juggle around the possible answers you could give and the potential situations they could create.

You know your face is turning red, what with how your cheeks are warming and how fast your heart is racing, so you shove Charlie’s shoulder a little first, unable to give an actual answer yet.

Letting you push him, he leans back, away from you, a smile lifting on his face.

“It’s okay if you do. I like you too.”

You stare again, your mouth opening and closing like a goldfish as you try to come up with something intelligible to say.

“Huh?”

Charlie is laughing now, full-bellied, head thrown back. At his response, you bristle a little, overthinking his words.

“Wait,” you say nervously. “Do you actually like me?”

You fiddle with his phone, dropping your eyes to the screen to examine the tweet again. Studying the screenshots, you can’t help but think that the kind of smile Charlie wore was the same one you had whenever you looked at him.

The phone is gently pried from your grip and placed face down on the table, forcing you to look at its owner. Instead of the humour that filled his eyes, Charlie now looks at you with utmost sincerity.

“I’m being serious. I like you.”

Staring into Charlie’s eyes, taking in the face of the man that made you smile in every situation, you find yourself being honest:

“I like you too.”

His eyes brighten, and the smile appears on his face again. The same smile that he wore in the screenshot, you realise. His smile is infectious, causing your lips to lift into a wide smile that reaches your eyes.

“Guess we’re both snoozing and losing today,” you quip, sending Charlie into a fit of chuckles before he’s pulling you close to him.

When Charlie retweets the aforementioned tweet, Twitter goes nuts for days.

[wayfayrr]

The Menace Anon is back but with a Self Aware ask because I got an idea as I tried to mod my Switch. How about that Zelda is aware in the Game? There is already Zelda's Ballade a Mod for BotW so Zelda replaced Link/ Wild. So what about Zelda being the one who is aware and works together with her Link as in Age of Calamity it's possible to play as Zelda. And now there are two Zeldas and maybe one Link/Calamity as he is probably aware of Reader with all the DLCs and if Reader is anything like me they get 100%. I did that to BotW and am working on it in TotK. Zelda would be extremely clingy especially Flora, BotW Zelda, as she lost everyone who is important to her. Maybe she gets Wild to help her. Fauna and Calamity have Terrako and this little thing shoots through the screen with his laser. TAKE COVER READER!

this is gonna be a funny thing to answer as someone who isn't the fondest of zelda in botw/totk (she had the potential to be really good I just don't vibe with how she was written lmao - so many missed opportunities)

but that also has the potential of introducing the fact of what if you didn't like the characters story when they were aware - because that would be awful for her wouldn't it?

she loves you more than anything but because of the way her story was written you don't like her? Even going as far as to apologise to link about what he got put through in the story? so she's stuck hearing you give him your pity as she's trying her HARDEST to get you to see her in another light, while link is either looking on smugly at your blatant favouritism or staring on blankly as he is simply a puppet of the game who isn't even alive either one being a good spark to why she'd be more willing to work with the aoc pair.

I think they'd have more potential to work together in aoc as compared to either botw/totk (also time to give cal some time in the spotlight like you mentioned) seeing as he has the most "history" with zelda, whereas wild/tears have no incentive to (they're the only playable character so what does she have on them?)

Zelda from her actions alone at the opening also seems to be more reckless in her safety than link, so her hopping into another game earlier than when she'd have a good grasp on how to do it without many issues seems in character for her. hence, now there's two different zeldas in your aoc file? That shouldn't be something that happens right? you've watched the cutscene many times and she never appeared with the other botw characters - so why is she here now? But the other members seem to acknowledge her so maybe you're just misremembering? They'll make sure to keep a note of anyone who might try to convince you otherwise as well.

when the three of them finally do get out - and probably after apologising for scorching a wall or something, then they have the perfect place to start winning you over properly <3 trying to prove to you that they're more than simply the character that Nintendo wrote them as, that you should give them a chance to show you how much they care for you!!!

just, just don't choose link over them, else you may not see much of him anymore - as while they can work together, they aren't exactly willing to work with a threat, but as long as you treat them equally there's no issue right?

[kaiser1ns]

𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗶 𝘆𝘂𝗷𝗶 𝘅 𝗳𝗲𝗺!𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

╹synopsis :: in which someone beats itadori's record in the arcade.

╹contents :: fem!reader, fluff, love at first sight, megumi the moral support guy

╹notes :: my first work <3 hope you enjoy it! sorry for any grammar mistakes.

strolling trough the bustling shopping center, itadori's eyes caught a glimpse of the punch boxing machine infront of the arcade. "hey, fushiguro! want to give it a try?"

the pinkette excitedly points at the metal box going straight to it, while megumi just followed his best friend without even having the chance to answer. excitement sparked in him as he remembered the last time he tried his luck on it. his previous score was still displayed on the screen.

with a grin, itadori inserted a coin and took a deep breath. just do it like nanami. the machine's target pads lit up, as he unleashed a powerful punch causing the machine to shake. a few people around them turned their attention to the display, curious to see if the boy could surpass the record - 976.

fushiguro watched with his usual nonchalant expression, crossing his arms as he observed his friend's determined efforts. the tension in the air was strong, as the score climbed higher and higher. 973 ... 974 ... 975

but alas, itadori fell just short of surpassing his previous record. he let out a groan, wiping the imaginary sweat from his forehead, murmuring something about this being a warm-up. "you are slacking off, again." the raven head said, taking out his phone and taking a picture of yuji's expression. "i knew that I should have trained with nanami yesterday."

disappointed but still in high spirits, yuji turned away from the machine, ready to explore other attractions in the arcade. but just then, a girl with striking h/c hair approached the punching boxing machine, her eyes gleaming with determination. she inserted a coin with a confident smile, her fingers flexing in anticipation.

as the machine activated, she unleashed a punch that left the crowd in awe. the score on the screen skyrocketed, surpassing itadori's record with ease. the red neon lights went on screening NEW RECORD 1000. his jaw dropped, and he couldn't help but be impressed by the mysterious girl.

the said girl turned to itadori, panicked from the result she herself didn't expect to achieve. "i'm sorry! ididn't meant to break your record." he could see the genuine concern in her eyes, and a small smile played on his lips.

itadori applauded the performance giving her a thumbs up. "are you serious? that was amazing! you really know how to throw a punch." the mysterious girl, relieved by his positive reaction, blushed at his comment. "thank you" she replied, a shy smile playing on her lips.

as they continued to stare and smile at eachother making small talk about different ways to score more, megumi's phone suddenly ringed signaling it's time to go home. he signed, as he didn't want to do this "i'm sorry to interrupt your lovely time, but we have to go" itadori looked at him with a pleading look as if telling him to have 5 more minutes.

"it's okay, itadori! here save your number on my phone." as instructed he did so, returning the phone to her, his heart beating fast because of the fact that the pretty girl wanted his number. yuji smiled, bidding his and megumi's goodbye. "i will see you soon, y/n!"

as they parted ways, yuji and y/n thought about their future dates, who knows maybe the next thing to break are going to be their friends boundaries, hopefully turning into something more.

BONUS:

"do you think if i ask gojo-sensei , he can enroll y/n in jujutsu high?"

"do you seriously think that he will allow someone with no knowledge of curses to enroll and have their life in danger?"

"but she is so strong and pretty! she will manage, we can ask if maki has another pair of glasses." the vessel was met with a smack on his head.

"idioit." but in secret, megumi was happy about his best friend.

©2024 kaiser1ns do not copy, repost or modify my work.

[tiktaaliker]

i aaamm curious about your blaseball guys,,,,, yap away

OH HI HELLO YES. OHIO WORMS.

so. um. a very important thing to know about the ohio worms is that they sucked so bad and had the worst luck imaginable. when the team first joined the league our players were so awful that we managed a partytime speedrun (aka we set a record for being mathematically eliminated from thr playoffs the quickest. and that record was never beaten. go worms!). I could go into more detail about this because i personally find it REALLY fascinating and the worms rotten luck is part of why i love the team so much, but I'll spare you from the essay on mathematically proving that the sim hated the worms, and for now and talk about other stuff lol

another very important detail about the ohio worms is that in blaseball this -> 🐌 is a worm. Out of keyfabe this was because the actual worm emoji wasnt available to all devicies. In keyfabe this is because the Comissioner doesnt know what a snail is

ANYWAYS. Heres some of the guys from the ohio worms that i think about a lot c:

^ old art but i still like it. pictured left to right is lenny crumb, scratch deleuze, and patchwork southwick

Lenny Crumb is usually depicted as a snail or worm with a pastry for a shell! He's one of our original players from when the Worms first joined blaseball. He was our first in rotation, and hit a home run at our first ever at-bat! If you've listened to the legend of lenny crumb from the garages world tour album, its about this guy c:

Scratch Deleuze is another worms original. Usually depicted as an opossum. I love scratch so much its unreal. Scratch was one of our best batters and was really widely beloved among worms fans (including me). She actually spent a really long time elsewhere; i think she might hold the record for most irl time stuck elsewhere, if not then it was def up there. She also got the cluttered mod in one of the later seasons, which worked GREAT because we had the filithiest stadium BY FAR and the mod made her play better in stadiums with high Filth levels. Also her pregame ritual was eating spaghetti <3

PATCHWORK SOUTHWICK MY BELOVEDDDDD. i have an unhealthy obsession with mediocre pitchers in blaseball and patchwork was the best of them. So without getting too in depth on player stats and fk stats and all that stuff because it was REALLY complex, but the main thing thats relevant here is the ruthlessness stat. Ruthlessness was a stat that impacted how often a pitcher throws strikes instead of balls. It was EXTREMELY important and every really good pitcher in blaseball (at least up through mid-expansion before i thiiink stats got reworked a bit and ruth wasnt as important anymore) had a maximum ruth. Patchwork meanwhile was EXTREMELY fascinating because their ruthlessness was jusssst good enough to make them a viable pitcher but also shitty enough to make any game they pitched in the most dire and stressful experience imaginable. Patchwork liked to load up the bases with walks and then strike out three batters in a row. Practically every noteworthy game in worms history had Patchwork as the pitcher. A running joke in the ohio worms was "I WANT TO GET OFF PATCHWORK SOUTHWICK'S WILD RIDE" for a reason. I love themmmm and i personality hc them as a scarecrow being possessed by a committee of ghosts c:

^ more old art lol. Kaz Fiasco and Pitching Machine

Kaz Fiasco waz an original worm who is commonly depicted as a mothman-adjacent creature. When the glitter weather first started appearing (which had a chance for players to randomly received items. Kaz got 2 hats which he had on at the same time. Iirc i think his first hat he got in the first ever glitter game in the entire league! He ended up being feedback'd over to the Sunbeams in exhange for Iggy Delacruz (riv), which i think was extremely fitting. I personally headcanon that the only recipe that Kaz is able to make is party cheese salad, and I would go into other teams channels temporarily just so i could let them know about this whenever kaz joined a new team.

Pitching Machine is not an original worm by technically. During the first election Worms were a part of after being part of the league for less than a full season, we somehow ended up with Pitching Machine (REALLY good pitcher, extremely popular, involved in Major Plot Events) which is great! ....except with the way trading worked, PM ended up in our batting roation. Surprisingly enough, Pitching Machine was also a pretty good Batting Machine! PM was a beloved worm to the point where we intentionally wasted a will during one election to steal it from ourselves (long story). The song Not That Bad by the garages (also on the world tour album) is about pitching machine's time on the worms c:

I actually have quite a few more ohio worms players i want to talk about, but honestly i'd need to dedicate an enire post JUST for vess sundae and roz darkness, my two all time favorite blaseball players ever, and also its almost 1 am and i have work tomorrow. but i can and will talk more about blorbos from my splorts later

[luciddreamingstuff]

Putting That English Degree To Use For Stickmen

[Credit to Dearest Friend for the arts. They do not have an online presence so you won't find em.]

Wooden Pickaxe: Overview. 

So, challenge accepted. Disclaimer: just because I have said degree doesn’t mean what I say is the be all, end all. Honestly this is just personal opinion at the end of the day and how I viewed certain choices. I always say: do your own research and come to your own conclusion. In this case? GO WATCH IT! THIS THING IS AN HONEST TO GODS EXPERIENCE IN THE BEST WAYS POSSIBLE!

I’mma be honest, I remember when this series first came out (ie, I’m old by fandom standards) and yeah, I remember the first few episodes, loved it, watched some of the series and then randomly stopped. Honestly a huge mistake on my part because I missed OUT! My closest and dearest friend of a long ass time came in one day and dragged my ass back. And we watched the whole thing until 1 AM my time. But my gods, was it worth it. 

It all started with a bunch of stickmen breaking into my beloved game of Minecraft. 

And somehow it became a masterpiece. 

So I will break this up into sections for my own sanity and give a blurb for each. If you read through all of this, congratulations, there is a plate of cookies at the bottom. 

Now for my overall thoughts: it is stickmen, STICK-MEN-IN-MINECRAFT. You couldn’t get more basic than that and yet it became a grand adventure with fantastic character moments, a beautiful score, actions and choices made where words were not used, the lore is awe inspiring and just hits all the storytelling notches that truly make it something that Hollywood is never going to replicate. When I say this is the Minecraft Movie for me? I fucking mean it. 

I think there’s a saying, you don’t always need dialogue to tell a story. And the Alan Becker Team did just that. 

Stone Pickaxe: Storytelling. 

Show, Don’t Tell. Or Showing Versus Telling. You hear this all the time and wonder, what do they mean? There’s a difference between showing your audience what's going to happen versus telling your audience what’s going to happen. If you wanted a visual example of Show Don’t Tell, then look no further than the beloved Color Gang. Show Don’t Tell is something that we should all be practicing. Of course there are times where you do need to tell your audience of what is going on, but your story shouldn’t be all exposition. Let your audience discover the world with the characters. When first starting this series way back when it was just four episodes and not shorts, we got to learn about how everything worked with the Color Gang. After all, they are on cartoon logic with a video game. So we were learning along with them how everything worked and being just as surprised along with them about the key features of this new world so to speak. For those of us who have played the game for years and years, we have our understanding of the mechanics. But of course certain rules are thrown out the window once you apply cartoon logic. If you really want to equate it to something, it felt more like modded Minecraft. Which is perfectly fine. And then later on we get into actual famous mods such as lucky blocks and how they expand on the lore of it. But the lore itself of the Animation vs Minecraft will be discussed later. Anyways, throughout the story, we are mostly showing, not telling, in the literal sense. After all, none of these guys actually speak our language, communicating through gestures and examples. So how much can they actually tell us? Again, in the literal sense, nothing. But when you are talking rhetoric, you can still tell without saying a single word. And in the cases of when we find out the backstories of our main villains, that’s when you ‘tell’ so the characters, and by extension the audience have a greater understanding of why they did what they did. 

For Purple, it was told via them explaining to Green why they have to be the best, why they have to be on top. Of course we watch that through the noteblock world and its music. Now we understand motivation and it was built up nicely with dropping hints here and there through their character actions. Purple needed the validation they lacked in their life, so of course they were going to do anything about it, shown through their actions of taking over a village and ruling it over. Of course here comes Blue and Green and it completely messes that up and infuriates Purple. On the other hand, with King Orange, we see why they do what they do through a flashback scene. It's still technically telling us why they are committing these atrocities. And come to find out, the poor guy lost their family member to the game, to the code due to a glitch. All of it makes sense and the reveal is just as delicious. You’re rooting for the guy to be derezzed until he shows care for Purple as the guy had a change of heart and is trying to stop King orange from destroying everything! Once again, a prime example of Showing vs Telling. and then we see the telling, the explanation of why. When you are putting together a story, know when to show, and know when to tell. For some, you might be looking at this and thinking “oh but that’s impossible to do within a written piece of work!” I can assure you it isn’t. Think of it this way, exposition versus character actions. Here’s how I would write out the scene to follow the example of Showing: 

“King Orange had it, he finally had it! A chance to change this world, to fix what had been broken, to undo horrific actions taken upon the damned code. The light from the control staff with the game icon tearing up everything around it. Gratification at its finest. No one could stop him, not those damn kids, not anyone! Until he heard it, the whooshing of an elytra. If there’s one thing far more bitter than Nether Wart, is the bitterness of betrayal. And looking down the beam of light, that betrayal came through. Purple fought against the code destruction, pleading and reaching out to the King. Purple had looked up to King Orange, but really Purple was just the perfect pawn. And yet watching their body be torn apart, something flashed in their mind. It hurt, the color changing from Purple to a yellow. The cubes and chunks falling off Purple’s body. Something stirring deep inside. It festered, demanding to be fed like the destruction above.

Why? Why now?

Did they actually care about a subordinate? All of those moments they had together, Purple running around and gathering the colorful gang of warriors. The children that laid before them clinging onto what they had left of their bodies as they were ripped away by the corruption. King Orange felt the bitterness rise up, seeing the one before them change colors. Their heart twisting and shattering over and over as Purpled screamed out at thim to please listen, to stop this. They don’t want to lose King Orange! That they can forget all of this and become something else! If King Orangehadn’t been paying attention, they would have missed the gesture of Father. The word stung so badly, they couldn’t fight it, not anymore. and Purple . . . . Oh maker what have they done!? Purple slowly being ripped apart by their own hands! A monster! The visage from before would have been disappointed. A finally cry out and Purple slowly drifted back, into the void of nothing. 

NO! THEY COULDN’T LOSE SOMEONE ELSE! NOT AGAIN!

All of this, all of this had been for something! And instead! another had to suffer, and by their own greed. The staff fell from their hands as they raced towards the dying Purple. How could King Orange let it get this far? What was their goal in the first place? And how many had to suffer to achieve it?! King orange couldn’t let another die to this damn game, they couldn’t make the same mistake twice! A leap of faith as the stream of bright destruction took hold. Their vision disappears, their hand grabbing into Purple and there, the reason for all of this, begins to unfold.” 

Give yourself a little more credit, you can absolutely Show through writing, leaving hints. And then we get into the line of tell, where we find out more about our main cast and what had happened to them throughout. That is the art of it all. Tell when necessary, but try to show, let the audience explore this new world with your characters. Just like what we did with the Color Gang. If you ever needed an example of how to show and how to tell, go back and watch this whole thing, especially if you are a visual learner. All the bits and pieces that we might pick up throughout the story are brought forth with an explanation that wraps it all up. The fundamentals of Showing Vs Telling. 

The hero’s quest, a journey to return home, all of it interconnecting and mingling with each other. When you break it down to its most basic components, it really isn’t that complex of a story. Of course that’s at the base, and again, that’s not a bad thing. I think what people have forgotten is going back to the roots of stories and things that have already been established is not taboo. Too many things try to be new and exciting and forget the fundamentals. Without the fundamentals of what story we are trying to tell, too many things get lost and it becomes too complex to the point where your audience needs a whole powerpoint presentation just to understand what happened in the worst way possible. Trying to get the surprise on your audience with too many twists and turns? Now your audience is dizzy and the big reveal is not so. A story of progression throughout the choices made with our characters. Don’t forget, at the base of this, you have our main cast coming in and eventually saving the world. They gather their tools and skills throughout the two seasons for it to all build up to the final moment with saving the digital world. Even with our first big bad, Purple, being a first step instead of being the only villain throughout the series. After their defeat, the Color Gang are able to return back to their lives, the interlude of season two, and continue growing their skills. I think what people tend to forget is having the payout be equal to that of the challenge. Fundamental of the Hero’s quest/to save the world that people often forget. You got to have your characters actually be equal to that off the challenge. If you had thrown their season 1 selves at the final boss, they would have been destroyed or have it too far of a stretch to really be enjoyable. Part of the Hero’s quest is that montage that we get with the training arc. And too many want to skip over that, to rush it. I think having season 2 is critical for seeing the growth of our characters. All of it falling into place neatly. If you don’t put up the frames before the walls and roof, it’s all going to collapse. 

Iron Pickaxe: World Building. 

Okay here is one of my favorite things, World Building. I’d like to think World Building is my bread and butter. But at the end of the day, we’re talking about Stickmen and Minecraft. And somehow you got an amazing world from that. How so? It’s not rocket science I can assure you. But how they did it is truly fantastical! It’s a video game, it’s Minecraft. Sure it can be used as a medium for telling the story. But to use it as a part of the worldbuilding? I think that really is what sets this apart. It uses the mechanics of the game that was already established while twisting it in a way that makes sense. It’s based around the world of the game and the flexibility and imagination. With how they built the world of Minecraft into their story and the purpose it serves as a whole new land to explore, I dare argue that if you tried this with any other game, it would not be the same. What people tend to forget is how integral the world building is and what you can genuinely do with it. 

They took the game of Minecraft, added some mechanics here and there but once again kept to the heart of what it is. And that it’s a 16 bit game of blocks. With how they interact with the mechanics of the world, it meshes well with their own cartoon mechanics. And that’s the important part of when you are taking something familiar and putting it into something new. Your world building harmonizing with everything else around it is so, so important. How are you going to make cartoons fit in a game where blocks rule the land? Understand the game and the players at its core. Everything they do in the game itself honestly makes sense to me. They balance out the cartoonyness of it with something you can’t do in the base game. But with the cartoonish effect, such as Green using a fishing pole as a grappling hook? Technically you can do that with players, just not swinging around like Spider-Man. The versatility of minecraft as a sandbox is an absolute key factor here. Minecraft is what you make of it, not just as a medium to tell a story. Those who have figured out how to incorporate the world of minecraft, mechanics and all, within their world building are under-appreciated in my mind. And those who dismiss that brilliant effort do not understand the game at all. And people can tell me it's just a game. When I watch animation vs Minecraft, this is what I mean by it's more than just a game. 

Diamond Pickaxe: Characters. 

Characters! 

Love em, they are perfect, no thoughts. 

. . . .

. . . .

Okay so why are they such fun characters? I think it comes to the fact that they fully fleshed out and getting to see them with all their own moments. For example, we get to see Blue’s personality shine with them brewing potions and . . . . the Nether Wart addition (rehab, we need to get Blue into rehab.) But seeing how they invent their own solutions to problems with their love of potions. And that’s with all the characters, seeing their own quirks come to life to solve a problem. Like Red on the redemption arc and becoming a serious animal lover and all their moments involving an animal. Or how about Green getting into music and having a bit of an ego about it, only to get humbled a few times and learning to share. But likeI said, each character is getting put into a situation where you can see their bits of personalities really coming in handy in certain situations. Of course, the core of each of them being from a fighting game. And even their fighting styles drift from each other. When writing characters and seeing how they interact with others, what makes them stand out? and how well do they work with others? Simple questions to be asking yourself when writing a character. Once you’ve created the character, what makes them stand out from the crowd, if they do at all. Every character has their own unique trait that makes ‘em stand out no matter what. At their core, they are all still friends, with TSC being that pseudo leader still but giving the others a chance to shine. I think what really makes all these characters so special to me is how they balance each other out. How they learn and grow with each other and even on their own, we see how maybe the fiery determination and fierce loyalty excels in one part (think Red in Monster School) versus needing the gentle compassion and listening skills in another situation (Think Green in the Noteblock world with Purple). Because none of the characters speak, there had to be other ways to show their character traits and how it comes in handy. For Red, their loyalty to their friends is also reflected in their actions with his love for animals. Or for Green it was their music, needing to be a sharp listener in order to come up with the different pieces they play. Not to mention they have their fatal flaws as characters, which can be balanced out with another from the group. 

No character is perfect, just like how no living creature is perfect. We all have our flaws. And without said flaws, the world would be extremely boring. Yellow is a genius when it comes to Redstone building, very meticulous and their inventions have come in handy. But their flaw can be a desire for perfection. Red can be a bit stubborn, childish even, as evident during the lucky block episode, disregarding any consequences that might come out due to their actions. Blue’s tunnel vision (especially with nether wart) can sometimes leave them without hindsight. You get the idea. A Fatal Flaw is not inherently something bad and that must be fixed. No, the whole point of a Fatal Flaw is to make the character interesting and to give them a challenge. Doesn’t have to be the most serious thing out there. You could have the Fatal Flaw be a phobia of bananas. A perfect person? No. Perfection is arbitrary, there is no such thing. Something can be perfect to you as it meets all your standards. But there will always be some flaw that isn't present to you but to someone else. Truly a "eye of the beholder," sort of deal. That's fine, fantastic even. Explanation aside now, since Nuance is a lost art these days . . . That's a whole other conversation. There will always be some kind of Imperfection, and we get to see it play out. Hell you can have characters have the same Fatal Flaw, in the case of the Color Gang, they are all competitive as shit. They can put their differences aside when needed. But given the chance of competition? None of them can resist. And it makes sense with their backstories and their nature. 

Redemption. Let's talk redemption. 

So it is no secret that redemption of a villain for me is hit or miss, mostly miss these days. Every villain is to get redeemed and some people aren’t just shitty people and blah blah blah. Personally a bad message to send about how sometimes, people are just horrible and there is a time and a place and not to mention not setting yourself on fire—we can talk about that later. We’re here to talk about Character Redemption done right. See, King Orange and Purple had their redemptions within the series. And it was one of the few times I didn’t roll my eyes. No secret to anyone I think modern villains being redeemed left and right is stupid. But with King Orange and Purple, it makes sense for them. Were their actions justified in the end? To some extent, no. But now we understand why they did what they did. For King Orange, the block game killed their sibling. If I were in their shoes . . . uh, boots? I would have done the same. Doing everything one can to bring back their only family member. But when someone goes too far, such as sacrificing the lives of many? Can he be redeemed? I think so. At least for here, King Orange became proactive, in trying to fix their mess. And especially do right by Purple who had been chasing that familial connection ever since they met. 

For Purple? Daddy issues! Woo! Usually it makes them an artist, but in this case, a tyrant? Sort of. Purple had been craving that connection and validation. And it took Green finally listening to them and their story, explaining why they took the actions they did. And this is when you can offer sympathy, to put them on the right path. And in this case, it makes sense. Green offered that bridge and Purple, through some soul searching, saw that bridge and took it. In this case, Purple worked to try and fix this, sacrificing themselves in order to reach King Orange and make them realize they had fucked up badly. If you do not make your redeemed villains proactive with their redemption. Or even have it be justified (looking at you White Diamond, fuck you Disney), there needs to be balance between time and action. If they didn’t do too much but are scrutinized to death while they are trying to be better? Then at that point, why try at all? And it has to be genuine. I’m not saying folks need to immediately forgive and move on. The Color Gang chose to forgive King Orange and Purple, and that’s perfectly fine. If they didn’t forgive right away and needed some time, that’s fine as well. Technically speaking, we see more of the Color Gang interacting with Purple rather than King Orange. For me that can be interpreted as they might not fully forgive him. It might take some time but both sides are trying. There’s a balance of time and grievance, for some, it was too much and they don’t have to forgive. While there is an understanding of lives fully separating and paths diverging, never to cross again. Perfectly fine. Once again, nuance, gotta love good old nuance. Why did the Color Gang forgive the pair? Well for starters, it was Green who reached out first, giving Purple a chance to change and help save the world. There that bridge was created for Purple to cross. And then later, King Orange would find that bridge and cross themselves. It was a great effort on both sides, with TSC coming in with the final clutch to stop Minecraft and everything inside completely disappearing. King Orange knows what they did was wrong, and put themselves on the right path to try and do Right. Both by themselves and by Purple, who had been at their side when the slip into utter madness and villainy took hold. For me, it will be a while before King Orange really finds their footing again. Their life had been absorbed into finding a way to bring their sibling back. But if we had learned anything about King Orange, they’re resilient and will find a way to stand. But at least this time, they won’t be alone. 

I am so sorry for the rambliness of all of this. You can blame the fact that media literacy is on a rapid decline and it is driving me insane. One shouldn’t fucking need a degree to understand that the door is in fact blue for a reason. As a writer, this disappoints me greatly. 

Netherite Pickaxe: Final Thoughts. 

I think there is a lot to be said about the overall story here. Key Factor Here that too many forgot about: YOU. CAN. HAVE. FUN. TELLING. A STORY! It doesn’t always need to be something so stupid compelling and a chess match in order for it to be good. Read that again: IT DOESN’T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SOMETHING DEEPLY COMPELLING. It can absolutely can, which when you think about it, our beloved stick figures, it goes deeper and deeper, all the way to bedrock where we find the heart of the issue. And it's between a choice, a series of spiraling staircases that lead to the near end of an entire world. Sometimes I want to have fun, sometimes I want to be on the edge of my seat. And where Parkour Civ was a fun story about our underdog rising to the top. We had Animation Vs Minecraft starting out like that, but then it becomes more and more, adding onto these layers and watching it truly grow into something massive. The in depth story that we got to see from the Alan Becker Team was wrapped up in a nice little bow with the world being saved, the heroes returning home, and the reformed villains looking for their own space. But when you put in the thought and care into something, like AvM did, you could have something so simple and yet have it be remembered with such fondness. It can be outlandish, it can be something that has been thought of before but not in that context. Cartoons' interaction with the block game isn’t new. But they took that concept and ran away with it. And I absolutely love that. 

If you were to ask me how I felt about the whole thing when it first started coming out, I’d tell ya it’s pretty cool and you should go check it out. Now that I’ve ran through the whole thing and took it apart somewhat, I’d tell ya it’s honestly a masterpiece. There is so much going on here that I haven’t touched upon because I was looking at this from a writer’s point of view. A breakdown of the action and animation would be a bit out of my reach. So this is what I can do for the moment. Truly I do appreciate all the care and work that went into this series and I do wonder where in the world do you go from there? For me, the story seems pretty wrapped up and it’s back to shenanigans. Because you have a pretty clean cut ending. And with Animation vs. Animator, there’s a lot going on there. So for the most part, season 4 is going to look like season 2 where it's back to shenanigans after the world nearly ended. As we have been seeing with the recent videos. I wouldn’t mind touching upon the fact that the world nearly did just end. But with the Color Gang, life does go on, and that’s how they have always been. Who knows what the team has in store for this, if they were to decide to pull something like this off again. I don’t know in all honesty, what do you think? Personally, I think it’s a nice break from the craziness that we experience and the other series running alongside. 

Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed this. I wouldn’t say it’s my best work. I was never good at essays, so if it seems a bit all over the place I do apologize. Writing a story and writing an essay about a story are two different things. But thank you for sticking around. And as always, I’ll be poking around. 

See ya! And don’t dig straight down. 

[hannahssimblr]

How did you improve so much in a year at building and taking screenshots?! Forever in awe

hahah thank you so much! I'm so happy with my improvement - the answer is ~magic~

nah, really, it's just that when I started Lucky Girl back at the end of 2022, I knew absolutely none of the screenshot tricks - I only ever got ts4 as a way to tell the story, and hadn't played it at all in the years prior. I ended up trying to take screenshots in a game where I didn't even know how to work the teleport function - and you can tell, I fear.

I was also using another platform to share my story at the time, and a lot of the content there kinda looked the same - vanilla, screenshots taken with plumbobs on and the walls down etc. I wasn't using Tumblr so I didn't have any inspiration. Coming here really pushed me to be better and taught me a lot of tricks and new things to add to my game to make it look better - the short of it, is that I just really didn't know better, and I just wanted to write the story. The screenshots felt secondary. I look back and cringe tbh, but I distinctly remember not really bothering that much with them, and thinking that 'just okay' was good enough.

Since then I've learned so much!

The first was how to teleport, and use MCCC to get sims to do couple poses off the lot

I got TOOL and figured all of that stuff out - including to create the illusion of varying heights etc.

I added in more details to the sims, changed any hair and skin issues, and added in skin details galore

I use WW for posing whenever I need something a bit more complex

I got over my fear of having too much CC in my game and just got so much build/buy cc - this made it possible to create the kinds of houses and rooms I imagined in my head - also, experience building helped a lot. In the beginning I was so intimidated, and frankly, unable to make things looked good that I relied on builds from the gallery 90% of the time.

Weirdly, even though I studied film in college, I never applied my knowledge of composition to the screenshots - I just started doing that, and generally trying to think more cinematically.

I got more use to using photoshop to fix screenshots, mix them together and crop them to be more compositionally pleasing. I also did that tutorial about changing the BG of a scene - I do that as a last resort, but it really works.

RESHADE - this was the biggest one. That DOF really changed my screenshot game - there's a point in lucky girl where I started using it, and you can see the instant difference.

Lighting mods - I use sunblind, and I also use the ghibli replacement clouds. I have a few others also to fix the shadows and lighting in general

Being more intentional with poses. I got a bunch of new ones with more subtle expressions that I felt suited the tone of my story better. I think the exaggerated ones are super cute, but they always seemed too much for my story. I also got animations for even more natural movement in scenes. Sometimes I'll make my own, too, if I can't find exactly what I am looking for

The eye trick was a huge gamechanger - I use it almost every single shot, and truly couldn't live without it.

Relight is a recent addition to my game - I only figured out how to use it around the end of part 2 of Lucky Boy. I don't use it a lot, but it was great more some of the dramatically lit festival scenes, and whenever I want some lamplight on a character (Or to just balance out a dark part of the shot)

camera mods have helped me gain more control of my scenes, along with the CTRL 5/6/7/8/9 camera saving trick. I use this a lot too, especially when I need to characters to look at each other with the eye trick and they won't do it at the same time (recent example below)

All of that is basically how I did it! It was a whole process but I'm so pleased because I look at the old screenshots and just think, damn, I've come so far!

More examples of the same scenes redone, because it's fun

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for lying to my online friends?

this is going to sound really bad but hear me out.

i (20m), offer freelance coding services in an (unnamed so i dont get caught) mmo- giving your player characters attacks outside of their class/elemental designation, customization mods, out of bounds and environmental destruction abilities, etc. stuff that people want and are too lazy to code by themselves but want, it pays well. the problem is this- my friendgroup (20s, 2m 2f) doesn't KNOW i do this. i run messages and correspondence under another, older account that nobody would be able to trace to the one i currently use for the majority of my play. i do not use exploits for myself on either of my accounts.

the thing is...i have pretty rough anger issues. i've gotten into more than one fight with a friend on my main account over stupid shit that got me worked up and a few of them almost ended our friendship. like i said, none of my friends are aware of the fact that i have the alt i use for work, and sometimes i'll enter pvp areas with it to hunt down my friends and say awful shit i have pent up. none of it is bigoted but a lot of it is MEAN. like i would not say it to their faces if they knew. i don't think most of them know it's me, but one of them, S (20s f)- who none of us even know much about, is starting to drop hints that she's aware. i don't think i can ever tell them the shit ive been saying to their faces without them all heelturning on me. i dont HATE them, i just NEED to take my anger out.

wibta if i kept the jig up as long as i can?

What are these acronyms?

[fereldanwench]

Hi! I'm not sure if you've answered this question or not or if I missed it in your pinned post. I've been dying to mod Cyberpunk for forever, and have finally decided to give it a try. I am very intimidated by the whole ordeal because I know cyberpunk has so many spec requirements (I play on console) and was wondering if you had recommendations? I'm looking to buy a PC to start my modding and visual photography journey but don't know where to start. I've scoured reddit for recommendations but keep getting mixed signals.

I've watched you slowly create your digital portfolio for Valerie over the last couple years and have just been in utter awe of your work. I've looked up to you for a while and want to follow in your footsteps.

Thank you for your time! ☺️💖

Hey there! Thank you so much for the sweet words!

You didn't miss anything, so no worries! I don't think I've ever shared my PC specs in one place. Currently I have:

Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk MAX

Processor: i7-14700K (with a Cooler Master liquid cooler, I forget the exact model)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB

GPU: Geforce RTX 3070 Ti

SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 2TB

NZXT H710i ATX tower case (I think this exact model is discontinued, but I'm a fan of NZXT cases in general--They're very roomy, have good airflow, and have good cable management features)

I've built and maintained my own PCs for about a decade now, and I remember when I first made the switch from console to PC, a lot of the conventional advice I got from more seasoned PC gamers was "Build your own rig, it's cheaper, and it's not that hard." I wasn't fully convinced, though, and I did just get a pre-built gaming PC from some random company on Amazon. If you have the money and you're really intimidated at the idea of building your own, there's nothing wrong with going this route.

Once I had my pre-built, I started with upgrading individual components one at a time. Installing a new GPU, for instance, is pretty easy and fool-proof. Installing a new CPU is a little trickier, especially with all the conflicting advice on how much thermal paste to use (I've always done the grain of rice/pea-sized method and my temperatures on multiple CPUs have always been fine). Installing a new power supply unit can be overwhelming when it comes to making sure you've plugged everything in correctly. Installing a new motherboard is not too far off from building a whole new thing.

And building/maintaining a PC is pretty easy once you get past the initial intimidation. There are so many video tutorials on YouTube to explain the basics--I think I referred to Linus Tech Tip videos back in the day (which might be cringe to suggest now, idk), but you search "how to build a gaming PC" and you'll get a ton of good results back. Also, PCPartPicker is a very helpful website in crosschecking all your desired components to make sure they'll play nicely with each other.

The other big piece of advice I'd offer on building a PC is not to drive yourself crazy reading too many reviews on components. Don't go in totally blind--Still look at Reddit, Amazon reviews, NewEgg, etc. to get an idea of the product and potential issues, but be discerning. Like if you check Amazon reviews and see a common issue mentioned in multiple reviews, take note of that, but if you see one or two complaints about something random, it's probably a fluke. Either a one-off manufacturing error or (more likely, honestly) user error.

You'll probably also see a lot of debates about Intel/NVIDIA vs AMD when it comes to processors and graphics cards--I started with Intel and NVIDIA so I've really just stuck with them out of familiarity, but I think the conventional wisdom these days is that AMD processors will give you more bang for your buck when it comes to gaming.

If you do go the NVIDIA route, I've personally always found it worth the extra money to go with a Ti model of their cards--I feel like it gives me at least another year or two without starting to really feel the GPU bottleneck. I was able to play Mass Effect Andromeda on mostly high settings with my 780 Ti in 2017, and I actually started playing Cyberpunk on my 1080 Ti in 2021--I think most of my settings were on high without any notable performance issues.

Now you probably couldn't get away with that post-Phantom Liberty/update 2.0 since the game did get a lot more demanding with those updates. However, my biggest piece of advice to anyone who wants to get into PC gaming with a heavy emphasis on virtual photography is that you do not need the absolute top-of-the-line hardware to take good shots. For Cyberpunk, I think shooting for a build that lands somewhere along the lines of the minimum-to-recommended ray-tracing requirements will do you just fine.

I don't remember all my current game settings off the top of my head, but I can tell you that I have never bothered with path-tracing, my ray-tracing settings range from medium to high, and I don't natively run the game at 4K. I do hotsample to 4K when I do VP, and I do notice a difference between a 1080 and a 4K shot, but I personally don't feel like being able to constantly run it at 4K is necessary for me right now since I still only have a 1080p monitor. If I'm going to be shooting in Dogtown, which is very demanding, I'll also cap my FPS to 30 for a little extra stability.

(Also, and hopefully this doesn't muddy the waters too much, but I feel like it's worth pointing out that you could have the absolute best of the best hardware and still run into crashes and glitches for random shit that might require advanced troubleshooting--My husband had a better build than I did when he started playing CP77, but he kept running into crashes because of some weird audio driver issue that had to do with his sound system. I just recently upgraded my CPU, RAM, and motherboard, and I was going nuts over the winter because my game somehow became less stable. It turned out the main culprit was Windows 11 has shitty Bluetooth settings.)

But in my opinion, I think getting good shots is less about hardware and more about 1) learning to use the tools available to you (e.g. in-game lighting tools, Reshade, and post-editing in programs like Lightroom or even free apps like Snapsneed) and 2) learning the basics of real-life photography (or visual art in general), particularly when it comes to lighting, color, and composition.

I don't rely on Reshade too much because I try to minimize the amount of menus I have to futz with in-game, but I do think DOF and/or long exposure shaders are excellent for getting cleaner shots. I also like ambient fog shaders to help create more cohesive color in a shot. However, I put most of my focus on lighting and post-editing. I did talk a little bit about my methods for both in this post--It is from 2023 and my style has evolved some since then (like I mention desaturating greens in Lightroom, but I've actually been loving bold green lately and I've been cranking that shit up), but I think it still has some useful advice for anyone starting out.

For a more recent comparison of how much my Lightroom and Photoshop work affects the final product, here is a recent shot I took of Goro.

The left image is the raw shot out of the game--It has some Reshade effects (most notably the IGCS DOF), and I manually set the lighting for this scene. To do this, I set the time in-game to give me a golden hour affect (usually early morning or early evening depending on your location) so the base was very warm and orange, then I dropped the exposure and essentially "rebuilt" the lighting with AMM and CharLi lights to make Goro pop and add some more color, notably green and blue, into the scene.

And the right image is that same shot but after I did some color correcting/enhancement, sharpening, etc. in Lightroom and clip-editing and texture work in Photoshop.

Okay, this was long as hell so I'm gonna end it here, haha. If you have any more questions about anything specific here, feel free to ask! I know it can be really overwhelming and I threw a lot at ya. <333

[cassiesdevblog]

I Don't Wanna Know Anything!!!!!

Don't try to teach me anything!! I don't want to know any of it! ...Why?

Because this terrifies me...

...and this doesn't!!

So don't tell me anything! .....Except what I actually need to know!

I want to zero in on the Binding of Isaac's seemingly lackadaisical approach to teaching players. This is a game loaded with hundreds and hundreds of different items with various effects, and the biggest effort it makes toward explaining what any of them do is never more than one short line of text, which is sometimes more of a catchphrase than an item description

This is enough for some people to call Isaac a "wiki game," and many will say you should just download the mod that puts a detailed description in the corner of the screen before you pick up an item, but I'm here to make the case against that

As a new player trying to get into Dead Cells (the game I pictured above with the detailed item descriptions), I found it overwhelming to try and digest all the information given to me every time I found a new item. The deluge of stats and attributes made it all feel super important, like I was already being expected to carefully consider every morsel of info while I was still trying to get to grips with the basic controls and movement. I'm sure some people are into that kind of thing, but I dropped the game fast

And I think the big question here is: would I need all this information to have fun?

Isaac's answer would be a firm no!!! You can pick the game up, not understand half the items you find, and have a blast anyway. Most of the time though, you'll have enough of an idea of what something does just by the short blurb of a description that you can make effective use of it without needing all the details

I think it would be awful if the game had the item descriptions mod (pictured above) preloaded by default. I'd like to think I'd just say "I'm not reading all that" if I found it overwhelming, but it's hard to ignore juicy, helpful information. After all, the player's job is to win, and it's the designer's job to make that process engaging

Not only that, but Isaac's approach actually removes the decision making from the process entirely for new players, because it doesn't give you any information until you pick the item up. If you waltz into an item room and see something you've never seen before, are you just not gonna pick it up? No, of course you just take it, and if you regret it later, that'll stick in your mind and you'll remember it next time. As you play, you'll gradually build your knowledge of what each item does, and eventually the game will be full of interesting decisions because of it

The short, catchy "item descriptions" are perfect for this purpose. It's easy for them to get stuck in your brain so they can help jog your memory next time you see the item. After playing enough, I've found myself reciting the ones I remember in my head before even picking an item up

It's a system that works great for all kinds of players, because the game is already fun even when you know nothing (plus, it's fun to discover what items do organically!), but you can reach new heights of strategy by naturally building a well of knowledge as you play, usually without even trying to

...Alrighty, so that's all nice and ideal, but what if players just crack open the wiki anyway and drag out the pace and volume of information waaaaaaay more than they would by downloading the item descriptions mod?

Well... I think that's fun too actually! If you're willing to go to the effort to go to the wiki and type in the name of every item you see before you pick it up, it's probably because you're super engaged with the game and you're in the mood to gather knowledge so you can make super informed decisions

Speaking personally, I sometimes do play with the wiki open if I'm in the right mood for it. But even then, I only actually look something up if I really want that extra advantage. The slight inconvenience of having to type into a search bar means I don't overdo it and suck the fun out of it. Rather, I generally only use it when I'm in the sort of mood where I find it fun!

Isaac is able to match so many people's moods and levels of experience by sparing the details and encouraging curiosity, discovery, and long-term accumulation of information, rather than trying to make sure you know everything upfront. I kind of think this is at least half of the game's secret sauce...!!! Seriously!

So if you ask me, the next time you want to tell your player something, you should ask yourself:

Do they need to know this to have fun?

(btw me and my friends just finished a whole ass game go play it)

[spiralsublime]

G13 with an innocent reader? Or maybe a reader who seems innocent but who won’t fall for his presumably manipulative behavior AT ALL.

(ps I’m really happy you’re doing dimension 20 x reader you made my day!)

(of course this is so fun for me, i'm glad that other people seem excited for it lol, i could probably do this for so many of their seasons lol)

but i love the idea of G13 and someone who matches him in not being played by his dumb shit! look, this lanky, greasy tech nerd is terrifying conceptually to these government organizations and these big realms of space. but to a normie who is not involved in the underground and has a basic job?? oh, this is just a dweeb, who is handy with fixing things.

The Beginning

G13 is so invested in the underground that I think he forgets that he is actually a person existing. So he is just locked into his laptop, headphones on, typing away. People are assholes, he is an asshole, this is how the world works.

I think he would have an immediate issue with people he thinks are attractive, assuming that everyone thinks they are attractive and thus they must be assholes who get everything for free.

But obviously, that's not fair. I think kindness would be the beginning and end of it.

Imagining those goofy animatic of you smiling and his glasses fogging over as he blushes.

G13 solves some (painfully basic to him) tech issue for you and after he deep dives on how sweet you are.

The Not So Good Middle

Look, this motherfucker is a hacker bad guy who owes nothing to no one. He jumps through tech hoops to learn your schedule and more information about you to try and make sure to set up a good meeting situation.

I do think you notice, but it is normal to see people around the city. Likely a joke or two about a small world or maybe you thank your lucky stars that a tech wiz happens to be around because your dog shit tech is always breaking.

He is focused on trying to just be in your presence. Maybe he is talking around trying to basically take you on a date without ever asking.

I think the first show that his manipulation bits won't work, will be in this moment where you call him out. ("You know, you could just ask me out instead of trying to make me ask you or hoping we cross paths.")

Boundaries Made By Flat Acknowledgements

Look G13 is used to talking in code and dancing around realities. This is not how normal people expect to have to interact. I think he isn't used to hearing simply "No".

Just him pushing for you to hang out alone with him more instead of previously made plans. "Aw, baby, thank you for wanting to hang out with me, but let's do that tomorrow." A kiss to the forehead and the man is SPUTTERING.

He tries to be shitty and you grab your bag and stand. "Sorry, it looks like you are pissed with work and taking it out on me. I'll let you cool down."

Just deftly keeping your own space and boundaries. But also you are expicit with helping to find his own boundaries to make sure you are doing right by him and it is INSANE for him.

Miscellaneous HCs

His other hacker friends do Not believe that you are real. For sure they think that G13 made you up.

G13 may understand tech to an insane degree but this man is helpless at basic games. He does not understand how to do crosswords or solitaire and he gets pissed when he tries.

The first time you kiss him he literally panicked and dropped his glasses with how fast he moved back. He then fumbled when you apologized for scaring him. (The second kiss was better.)

He does know how to cook the bare minimum, but only in his own kitchen because he modded all his appliances. (Your microwave was never the same after the first time he slept over.)

Even after dating for years, he blushes when you kiss his cheek in public. He is overly smug about holding your hand in public.

He does bitch about you not having enough security measures in place.

He is always super cold (this man is anemic, I just know it) so he is always shoving his cold ass hands under you to warm up. Big cuddler unless he is focused on a job.

Only you are able to coax him from work so he can remember to eat during projects.

I think I'll pause here, but GOD, I have so much more with more specific things. -- see my other x-reader things

[sol-consort]

What’s ya think about V’s lack of cosmetic mods?

V’s in a world full of interesting cosmetics, between freaky maelstrom eyes, fully gold skin, arms covered in spikes

And in all of this, is V, where largely the only visual mods they have are their arms, or maybe some small ones on the face

For our nomads, it can make sense to start out without any crazy visual mods; of course people in the city would dress (or mod themselves) different

But it seems odd that V never gets the option to fit in with the people on the street

I thought so, too, but those cases of extreme customization seem to be few and far between. Look at the examples you gave,

Freaky maelstrom eyes—a gang that possibly required mandatory cyber modification. No wonder their members are encouraged down that path.

Fully gold skin—which is only found in customer service, especially during high-end places. Workers there are fully plated in gold, possibly as a way to dehumanise them and make the rich feel more pandered to.

Arms covered in spikes—I haven't seen that example yet, but I assume it belongs to another extreme group?

V fits in very much with the people on the street; those customizations aren't found in your average npcs roaming the lands (ignore the pictures' subject, I was trying to showcase their cool umbrellas for a future post)

The more unique npcs with important relevance to the plot seem to look like your average human as well, give or take a few cyberware lines.

Viktor, Meredith Jackie, Panam, Johnny, Mama Welles, and Misty all have natural hair colours and eyes. Judy and Evelyn have coloured hair, but nothing more past that.

it's the intricate, fully-coloured tattoos V is missing out on. Judy is covered in them, even Jackie and Viktor have them, yet the options offered to V are mild at best.

Interesting fashion as well, as cool as V's current wardrobe is, it lacks in comparison to the street npc fashion, let alone the fashion of important npcs (I NEED panam's outfit omfg)

And accessories. V lacks very much in accessories, which makes them feel bare in comparison to the average person. Even the simple bullet necklace showing up in cutscenes would've made a major difference. Even Johnny has a dogtag necklace.

At the end of the day, V fits with both street npcs and important npcs. The average nightcity citizen isn't a fashion icon, more on the plain joe side, usually natural coloured hair, some subtle cyberware lines, and a simple tattoo if they're feeling adventurous.

But fuck fitting in man! I wanted to have an all-gold skin!

Is V the protagonist or not?

Like I get it for immersion, but let us make that choice for ourselves, at least. The player should get to decide if they want an npc-looking V or one with flaming wings and diamond skin.

I'd rather see a customization option that I hate than see an option I feel "meh" about. I rather V customization has options that make me go "wtf calm down edgelord" than boring mild ones that I'll mindlessly scroll by.

Be specific. You'll hit bullseye with a certain audience. You can't appease everyone, so you might as well focus on one group or two?

For the sake of not just shitting on things and complaining endlessly about other people's hard work, I'll mention the things I adore about V customization.

The eyes! Oh, the eyes are the most creative I have seen in a game full stop. Those double pupils one made me stop in awe, seeing them completely reset my brain preference, and I went to make a punk looking V instead of the plain one I was aiming for. Even if I didn't end up picking those eyes, I didn't stray from the path of punk V afterwards. Are we playing cyberPUNK or not?

The nails! It's such a nice little detail that brings me so much joy. How clever it is for the devs of a fps game to remember that the protagonist's hands are the part you'll be seeing the most of, outside of cutscenes. So not only you get the choice to decide their nail length, but also completely change the colour?

And those weren't mere colours, no, there were fully intricate designs there, a lot of them had logos of corporations and brands which fit amazingly in this dystopia corpo world. Some were metalic, others were matt, I was overjoyed. I changed V's nails on the regular ingame. I notice them whenever I reload the gun.

The hair options were nice, but there is room for improvement. In my opinion, anything that has to do with colour in character making should have side options for a hue, saturation, and brighteness sliders. The colour combinations ingame are absolutely beautiful, I love how vivid a lot of them are. But they're lacking in quantity, and adding every colour under the sun will just be tedious.

Give us the slider, then add multie haircolour options and give those their own slider, then you're done! They already implemented colour sliders for the cars ingame, it can't be that tricky to add it to hair?

The piercings were also... meh. Plain? Boring. All of them were alternative versions of the same piercing set, minus one item removed. I mean we could've had glowing neon piercings, cosmetic wires that go through your eyes, a glowing tongue! Come on.

The best tattoo system I've seen in a videogame is the DA:V one, where it gives you a matching full-body tattoo based on a theme, and you can decide to hide certian parts of it. So you can end up with any combination of tattoo placements you want. But I also hated how all the tattoo options were vague abstractions at best, general and broad to fit as many people's tastes as possible, only in black and white and never fully coloured.

Lack of bodytype, like why is fem V so scrawny and lithe when I have 10 body points? Give her some muscles she's a merc. Or better yet, give the player the choice to decide. Like DA:V again! We see fat npcs all the time, even Jackie was on the fuller side, so why can't V?

The hair has been a disappointment as well. I love the one I picked, but the other options were... yeah. Especially the lack of curly hair, do we really need the same straight haircut in varying lengths?

Thankfully there are mods to fix all of the above complaints, but it's also sleezy of a whole videogame dev team to leave it to modders and NOT integrate native mod support into the game. No I don't just mean the "play with mods" option at the launcher, I mean a whole mods menu you can scroll and download mods directly from ingame. Like BG3 and DO2. Hell, even allowing a steam workshop would've made a difference.

[vasito-de-leche]

;NSR MAYDAY - General Headcanons

Compilation of general headcanons and analysis about Mayday and other Mayday related things.

I just needed an excuse to fleshen out / analyze Mayday and any HCs I have for her bc I'm thinking soooo much about this game <3 there's also Zuke stuff in here because you can't talk abt one without the other lmfao

Aside from music, Mayday and Zuke share an interest for fixing, modding and tinkering with machines (any piece of tech discarded out in the streets).

Their approach to reverse engineering all the tech they get is different - Mayday focuses on recycling to build something entirely new and more powerful, while Zuke focuses on fixing and perfecting whatever it is that he's tinkering with, to make it more precise.

This is most notable with their respective instruments. Mayday's guitar is 100% built from scratch, spare parts and passion, it's also modded and tuned to her liking. This means that she's literally the ONLY person who can understand how it works, and why she couldn't replace her old guitar once it was destroyed at the end of the game. Meanwhile, Zuke opts for using NSR-brand drumsticks - the best of the best in the market - which he mods to work better with his way of playing.

The workshop in their base is attributed to Zuke because he's the one who cleared out the area to have all of their little projects located in an organized spot, since most of their living quarters were filled with unfinished projects, wrenches and bolts everywhere and so on. This is because Mayday has a very short attention span and gets attached easily, so she never has the time to finish anything nor the heart to discard her projects - especially when she keeps drawing faces onto everything.

A lot of their equipment was just made by Mayday herself, since she needed speakers strong enough to withstand the power of her guitar without getting fried after every performance. Many of their mutual friends see Zuke as the genius of the duo, but he insists that Mayday is the one doing most of the carry for B2J.

Both Mayday and Zuke got into music because of their loved ones.

It's canon that DK West is the reason Zuke got into music, and I like to think family was also one of the main reasons Mayday got into music, namely rock. One of her dialogues in-game mentions how her grandma used to listen and sing to the Goolings with her using an old radio, despite not knowing the lyrics nor understanding the music.

Whereas Zuke was influenced by his brother's rap career to give music a try, it was kind of the reverse for Mayday - rock music became a big interest for her from a young age, and her family supported her wholeheartedly. They would take her to concerts, buy merch for her whenever it was possible and basically hype her up. Her father can probably name every different phase and era in Mayday's childhood and teenage years based on the groups she was into at the time.

Judging from dialogue, I think it's implied that Mayday was born and raised in Vinyl City, and that she never really travelled outside. So it's not impossible for her family to attend her first concerts (in small, local venues as a teenager, before she and Zuke even met) and her proper debut in B2J. Her family is also the first ones to receive official B2J merch, shirts that she and Zuke designed and that look AWFUL but that they love all the same.

I think this family aspect also ties in nicely with the base game, specifically Yinu's fight since it's the first moment of tension for Mayday and Zuke in which they realize they might not be the good guys for hijacking concerts.

For Mayday, music is a lifestyle, not something to be forced onto people - she goes directly against NSR because of the EDM enforcement and the rock ban, after all. So it makes sense to me that she becomes a bit too engrossed in fighting Yinu's mother, someone who is directly puppeteering her own child and represents parents who live vicariously through their talented kids, to the point where she also forgets that Yinu is a child. A fact that she also initially brushes aside herself since Yinu is part of NSR.

I don't know, I just like when characters are flawed and multifaceted! Mayday and Zuke should be allowed to be hypocrites, as a treat.

Mayday taught herself how to play.

My personal agenda is to also hype up Mayday for being a music genius at 21, so yeah! I like to think she's 100% self-taught, which parallels Zuke's musical education rather nicely. They're both extremely good in their own unique ways.

She used to play by ear, trying to figure out how to play her favorite songs when she was younger, and later began to actually study music notation and so on.

When spontaneously coming up with new melodies and songs for B2J, she mostly uses her phone to record herself singing, as opposed to Zuke immediately needing to jot down everything.

It took awhile for Mayday to pick up and use Kul Fyra's guitar.

After the events of the game, Mayday ABSOLUTELY needed some time to properly process everything - her dialogue is all about realizing that she was in the wrong and reconsider the reason she picked up music in the first, wondering if she began to rebel against NSR because she couldn't cope with B2J and rock (two things very dear to her heart) being rejected, etc. So she wouldn't have had the heart to use her idol's guitar without coming to terms with a lot of things first.

My favorite headcanon to think about is that the cutscene at the very end, during Tatiana's speech, is of Mayday and Zuke performing after B2J's hiatus, after they both help each other mature and grow up a bit. And Mayday using Kul Fyra's guitar is symbolic of her renewed love in music and taking Tatiana's words to heart - "where I have failed, I want you to go beyond".

Mayday doesn't have any powers unique to herself.

I KNOW, I KNOW - it's kind of UNFAIR since EVERYONE has WORLD BENDING ABILITIES AND WHATEVER. Even Zuke is implied to have inherited DK West's shadow puppets and all, BUT consider THE FOLLOWING....THAT'S THE POINT.....

Every major character in NSR represents a type of musician or figure in the industry - and I'm not sure if it was meant to be read like this or not, but Zuke reads as that type of person who has really good connections with important figures, who had the chance to pursue higher education and afford expensive equipment, who is knowledgeable when it comes to the ins and outs of the industry BECAUSE he was there to see and experience it all firsthand (if we're taking into account the fact that DK West was implied to be a revolutionary activist related to NSR). He's even the one who is the most reluctant to go against NSR and gives them the benefit of the doubt, which can easily be attributed to him being the calm and collected, reasonable half of the duo but also because he personally knows EVE (and DK West if you count him as an important major figure). He's a huge fucking nerd with a degree and it makes sense that he's the one giving ALL the information about the music industry when interacting with all the objects around Vinyl City.

But May? Her dialogue is all about more common things, the way she talks about certain people shows that she knew them personally, that they were friends or acquaintances from all over town instead of the important figures Zuke speaks of. She complains a lot about the fact that from a surface level, NSR does look like a bunch of sellouts and really offers that underdog vibe in B2J. She has NO connections to ANY major character in NSR other than being a fan of Kul Fyra. We know virtually nothing about her backstory too.

So to me it makes sense that Mayday lacks any sort of unique and incredible ability, as she IS part of the little guys that B2J fight for. The underdogs that get brushed aside for whatever reason, because they're not relevant or seen as profitable and so on. She represents the artists who are naive, full of passion for their craft and determination to make their dreams work regardless of how cruel the industry might be.

My personal hot take is that instead of powers and some innate talent, Mayday offers something else: deep connections with people.

This example might not click with everyone since it's how I personally perceived the music and all and I actually know absolutely nothing about music other than It Sounds Good and It Makes Me Want To Dance, but yknow!

When listening to the B2J solos, there are times when Zuke's solo is very aggressive and almost takes over the entire song, which makes sense since it's a solo and they ARE trying to win over EDM. But Mayday's solos blend in so well with the base track of each boss fight, like she really is trying to match their vibe using her own genre rather than fight for the spotlight.

This is most noticeable in Eve's fight - both Zuke and Mayday's solos match Eve's base track perfectly. You can understand why Zuke would match her, since they know each other intimately and when you explore Dream Fever, he's the one giving ALL the in-depth explanations about Eve's vision when creating her sculptures and art. But Mayday would have no reason to match Eve at all, she doesn't understand any of her art let alone know her as a person. And still, the ONE thing Zuke tells Eve at the end of the fight is that if Eve came to know Mayday the way he does, she would like her as well. Zuke is happier being Mayday's friend and bandmate despite the fact that he's Mayday's antithesis, than being part of a big company and records label with his super hot girlfriend.

I like to think that Mayday's solos, the fact that she is Zuke's direct opposite in almost every way, that she's closely tied to the regular people and citizens of Vinyl City and that piece of dialogue from Zuke are a testament to Mayday's ability to really reach out to people through music. Not to say that her power is just friendship, but just the fact that she can adapt and come to understand anyone - as long as it's in a musical setting.

Personally I like it more when Mayday is just a regular girl without unique powers, but you could take these aspect of her and turn them into its own power!

[ebonysplendor]

TS4: "That's Not My Neighbor" Challenge

You've recently moved into a new neighborhood to kickstart your new life of young adulthood and poor decisions. You've only been in your place for a few hours before there's a knock at your door; it's the welcome wagon! How nice! They stay over for a few hours before taking their leave, gushing over how excited they are to have such a good neighbor; however, shortly after they leave, there's another knock at the door. It's your neighbor again. Back so soon? Not to mention, they're acting so strange. You remembered how nice they were, and now, they're being down right rude.. and did Bella Goth always have such piercing blue eyes? You then remember the myths -- doppelgängers is what they called them. You take a step back. You're starting to think that the person at your door is not your neighbor.

Sound interesting? Wanna give this challenge a try? Dope! Let's get into the specifics!

Just a heads up, I'm very privileged to say that I have so many game add-ons and mods that I can't tell nor remember all that is base game or not. Don't feel bad if you can't follow the guidelines exactly. The point is to play your game in a different way and have fun :) Don't stress the specifics. Anyways~

• Make doppelgangers of the neighbors in your world (however many is up to you; I did 15) and your sim and replace them with the sims that "are not currently in the world". This will help ensure that they are in game with as little work as possible. Be sure that you move everyone to the "other households" tab by un-hearting them • Your sim must start of with a bad, awful, or atrocious reputation. Did you really think people were just going to believe you about a Bob Pancakes copy cat? You sound crazy; prove them wrong. Speaking of crazy... • Your sim must have either the paranoid OR the erratic trait. You'd go crazy, too, if you didn't know if you were talking the real person or a copy of them. Not to mention, you probably have a doppelgänger out there, too (spoiler alert: you do). • Your sim must have the nosey OR klepto trait. How are you going to collect evidence otherwise? Even still... • Your sim must have either the socially awkward trait OR gloomy trait. There's not really an eloquent way to say "There are copies of people out there" without people either being put off or giving you a snide "Yeah, they're called twins". It's really depressing when people aren't willing to give you a chance and listen.

• Figure out who your real neighbors are and purge the fakes • Restore your good name • Prove to others that these creatures exist and that you aren't being delusional or hallucinating

• Discover and purge all of the doppelgängers -- Be sure to keep track of how many you've created, because you've gotta find them and win a fight with them in order for them to be "reported" to the DDD • Obtain a paranormal investigation license -- Not just anyone can go monster hunting; you could get yourself killed! It'd be best to approach it with some knowledge. Let people know that you're qualified for this type of stuff! • Restore your reputation to "great" -- Not the highest level of reputation, but still good enough that people are actually willing to be around you for more than 5 minutes when you start rabbling about copies of people walking among you all • Successfully complete a hard level paranormal case -- Prove to the people that you are a pro! No hand-holding here! When you're on the case, there's no chance of failure • Max out the charisma skill -- Smooth talkers can make people believe anything. Not to mention, it makes you more pleasant to listen to • Max out the Vampire Lore skill -- You're not some one trick pony; you can do it all! Of course you know how to handle something as simple as vampires. What monster hunter doesn't? • Turn an occult sim human -- Having super human abilities is cool and all, but some people see it as a curse. Cure an occult sim ... or make them human so they'll never hurt anyone again.

• No cheats for aspiration points! You've gotta work your butt off for that paranormal license! • No money cheats! You can use cheats to move into your home; however, after that, you've gotta work for your money • You must fight (or off) the doppelgänger successfully for it to "get reported" to the DDD within 3 attempts. • If you find a sim and their doppelgänger in the same general area (ex. same room, same building, same festival/event, etc.), you must immediately go home and you cannot go to that world for the rest of the day. You cannot go there even if you're invited there. They can be in the same place, but they cannot be too close -- keep your distance • If you run into your own doppelgänger, it must be on sight every time -- you've gotta fight them; you cannot off them. You're too evenly matched to off them, but you've still gotta assert your dominance. If you lose a fight to them 3 times, it's game over

• If you lose a fight to your doppelgänger 3 times OR if your doppelgänger offs you • If you cannot complete all your objectives within two sim years (14 days a week, per season = 112 days; you can lengthen or shorten this [trust me, depending on how many dopples you have, one year isn't going to be enough, and the regular degular 7 day week is a bit hard because every day has to be productive; I had 15 when I tested this out]) • If you get attacked by a vampire • If you get into a fight with a werewolf and lose • If you lose a fight to any doppelgänger (excluding your own) 3 times • If your sim dies (obvi)

(So you wont screw up the same way I did unless you want to play extreme mode or something)

• Use your gallery as a "reference board" -- it takes a little extra work, but it'll help you remember what your real people look like and their "most prominent" features [or at least what you changed] (ex. Has braces, has a mole on the left side of their chin, light eyes, etc.). Take notes in the description box. • Raise your fitness skill -- this is crucial to tip the fight in your favor; don't let your excitement get in the way! You don't have to be the strongest, just stronger. Make sure you can take the doppelgänger you're trying to "report". Remember: you don't have to get rid of them as soon as you meet them; just don't leave the job unfinished! • Take advantage of your sims wants, aspiration goals, and holiday traditions -- It may be a little tedious/annoying in regular gameplay but for this challenge? It makes farming those aspiration points so much easier! You can get a TON of aspiration points for holidays! • Join a club -- Just because most people are put off by you, it doesn't mean EVERYONE is put off by you. Work on your charisma and reputation naturally. Remember: it's not always what you know but who you know. If they'll associate with you, maybe others will be willing to give you a chance, too. Not to mention, there's perks to being a popular clubs • Attend festivals and events -- Sims from everywhere attend these things, maybe the doppelgängers will show, too. Be careful though! It might be too much to see a sim and their doppelgänger in the same place. You'd have to go home to recover. • Save your game file -- It's a challenge for a reason. It's definitely possible to complete this challenge on the first go, but in the event that you aren't so lucky, and it takes you a couple of tries, save your "setup", and then make a separate save when you actually start the challenge. This will save you so much time when starting over; you won't have to go through the hassle of replacing households with your doppelgängers again.

That's it! Sound simple enough? Give it a try for yourself!

Best of luck to you, and fingers crossed that your sim doesn't get taken out by a stove fire

[ghostwoohoo]

i desperately want to play the sims again but:

i can’t get reshade to work with sims 2. it worked on my old shitty laptop but now i can’t get it to open no matter what. it doesn’t even crash, it just doesn’t open with the game. i already get enough comments abt how awful my game looks i don’t need to start posting screenshots that don’t even have reshade

sims 3 is a blurry mess even after trying literally every solution available on the internet. every texture looks like it’s 4x4 pixels. yes my graphics card is recognized yes i adjusted my nvidia settings yes i’ve uninstalled reinstalled cleared every cache run the game with cc without cc backwards upside down etc. i think i’m gonna have to go back to running that on my shitty laptop too

sims 4 is so fucking bad i need like 200 mods to make the game enjoyable and it simply updates too often for me to actually maintain a mods folder. i only open it for cas since cc rarely breaks and the few mods i do have for cas can be maintained easily

i desperately want to post again but even more than that i want to enjoy the sims again!!! it’s my biggest special interest and has been my safe space for over a decade and now it’s suddenly become so stressful and i’m not sure what to do…

[gornackeaterofworlds]

Rise Boys playing/in Lethal Company

Donnie: the only one that ever gets anything done, but also has like 18 different mods installed, half of which show him where items and enemies are immediately. Completely silent when playing, but will hiss when approached without telling him you're there. Eventually might start a monologue about how he's been in the facility for ten long months, as if he's a lone survivor(Mikey and Leo are both dead). Raph tells him to cut it out cuz there's something outside and the walkie might attract it. Raph then dies to the creature from outside, and Donnie resumes

Raph: ship king, too scared to go in. Stays inside the ship but doesnt do jack shit, he does NOT know how to work the terminal. Has to walkie Donnie, each turret is a 5 minute process, and whoever he's doing it for(Leo) is already dead. Haunted by treeple and dogs nonstop. Will get in the corner near the computer, crouch, and whisper-yell "ITS RIGHT OUTSIDE HELP GUYS HELP" to the rest(only Donnie is alive. He's stealthing right outside trying to get into the ship and leave, and because raph spoke they both die. A nuclear argument ensues)

Leo: big fucking wuss. Screams constantly. Proximity chat sound byte gold mine. Puts on a brave face and attempts to go in, insists on being inside first, but makes literally every single monster angry at him. Tempts the spiders. Tries to run past turrets and fails every time. Game glitches so bad that even if he's doing good he still dies

Mikey: dead. Immediately. Sorry. Leo would scream running from a Thumper or something and Mikey would grab a shovel and lose trying to fight it. Loves the mods where he can change his suit, begs Donnie for them and it ends up crashing at least one computer. Unfortunately is kind to everything before it aggros, and believes Leo too much. "Hey Mikey go grab that beehive." "Woah is this a landmine?" "Aw omg its a little doggie!" Before the most mangled screams in existence leave his mouth. The lair is silent after. Leo promptly disconnects.